Various - 1000 Nadelstiche Vol.03, Twist & Hully Gully - Amerikaner & Briten singen deutsch (CD)

1-CD with 44-page booklet, 24 tracks. Playing time approx. 58 mns.
Twist & Hully Gully.

The re-release of the rarities from the most diverse genres is continued in loose succession.

This time Twist and Hully Gully.

Worldwide there was shaking.

After the great excitement around Rock'n'Roll had subsided a little, fresh ideas had to be brought in at the end of the fifties to get the enthusiastic young people - and here especially the record buyers - back on board again.

And yet it was an established R&B and rock 'n' roll pioneer who set off a new wave with his now legendary single, which turned into an international spring tide in the twinkling of an eye: Hank Ballard with The Twist, covered by Chubby Checker shortly afterwards.

An electrifying dance was born, which was even offered in progressive schools, which until then had dedicated themselves more to waltz, quickstep and foxtrot. Twist offshoots were added almost every month - designed on the drawing board, so to speak, to keep the current mania cooking a little longer: Hully Gully, Swim and Shake. Jerk, Madison, Monkey. Watusi, Duck, Stroll. Freeze, Pony and Shag. Hanky Panky, Dog, Mashed Potato. The list of inventions was endless (many of the new creations are summarized in the lyrics of Chris Kenners' immortal Land Of 1000 Dances).

The Twist - still ridiculed by the trade journal 'Leg auf und sieh fern' in a cover story as a "musical rotary worm" - had won. Twist movies, twist competitions, twist shows on still young television - there was simply no stopping. Even watchful doctors on both sides of the Atlantic could not change this. They warned anxiously of impending hip and knee dislocations, severe leg cramps, bone splinters and slipped discs. Orthopedist's advice: just dance the hot twist lukewarm!

The recording industry, of course, did not care at all about this. For almost three years the record companies shooed everything into the studio that was only nearly suitable as an interpreter for the now hip style - or not at all.

And of course the Twist didn't stop at German studio doors either. Local stars and starlets from Ralf Bendix and Paul Würges over Charly Cotton (= Christian Bruhn) and Teddy Parker up to Max Greger and Caterina Valente had to get on and flinched with the results often even into the charts.

Often, however, those in charge relied more on the original artists and their existing products. A German text was then grafted onto them, as was often the case from about 1955 onwards.

The most popular examples of this strategy are summarized on this CD.


BERND MATHEJA